Social Networking Update: The Appearance of Pinterest, a Gaff for Google+, and the Un-Friending of Facebook

It’s no surprise to anyone who has a computer or tablet or smartphone, well, OK, literally anyone, that the digital marketplace – particularly the social networking marketplace – travels at the speed of the consumer, with new entries coming along all the time. Some are deemed more social than others.

And according to a recent update to the Social Networking Category of the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, Pinterest, the content sharing service that allows members to "pin" images and videos to their pinboard along with standard social networking features, showed up for the first time since we measured the category in January of this year.

With the addition of a new entry, as well as the never-ending changes in consumer expectations, changes in the brand rankings show up too, currently looking like this:

1. YouTube
2. Twitter
3. Pinterest
4. LinkedIn
5. Facebook
6. Yelp
7. MySpace
8. Four Square / Google +
9. Flickr
10. Quora

In the re-configuration and re-calculation of the category, Facebook fell to 5th, Google + took a hit too, moving from 5th to 8th, and Yelp moved up one and MySpace moved down one.

And yes, the botched Facebook IPO couldn’t have helped the brand. But social networking brands need to manage themselves within the context of Main Street and not just Wall Street and know as much as they can about what drives their category.

Or they may just get their brand loyalty popped with a pin.

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